However, with the announcement last Friday of an agreement to sell the Snow Farm, they may be one step closer.
This month marked the start of the couple's 31st season on the snow and they were definitely ready for it, they said on Friday night.
"I'm only 74," was Mr Lee's enthusiastic response.
And the Snow Farm confirmed by email it was fully open for business after three weeks of weekend-only skiing.
It is the first of Wanaka's four skifields to open this season.
It was "touch and go" last year whether the Lees wanted to continue, given the recession and financial consequences of legal battles relating to land-use issues.
Mrs Lee, who just a year earlier was biking and running around on the Pisa Range like a mountain goat, was also in a lot of pain from osteo-arthritis.
But the launch of the 2009 Winter Games New Zealand was imminent and she could not let the Nordic sports opportunity slip for the New Zealand athletes.
She limped her way through the games before getting her much-needed double hip replacement surgery after the winter.
Mrs Lee is healthy now, compared with last season when her friends were worrying - out loud - how she would keep up.
She confesses she is not going to the gym as often as she used to and still has not regained all her famous energy.
That did not stop her completing January's Challenge Wanaka "swim the course" 3.8km social event with little training.
And she is not giving up cross-country skiing and biathlon, both of which she helped found in New Zealand.
Mrs Lee fully intends to continue her involvement with the sports this winter, while members of the Pisa Alpine Charitable Trust shadow her to learn how the business runs.
The amount the trust must raise is commercially confidential at this stage.
The land had an agreed valuation of $2.035 million last year.
Once the deal settles, Mrs Lee will hand over the mantle to the trust completely.
Then she is looking forward to spending more time with family, friends and her grandchildren.
But the trust - of which she is a member - will still get her 100% support.
"The trust is really dedicated and committed to promoting the sport into the future ... I feel confident the trust will do a good effort with fundraising [to settle the deal] because they are all so passionate," Mrs Lee said.
What keeps her going is the people, "just the amazing diverse range of people.
"Something about cross-country skiing just equalises all people," she said.
Mr Lee agrees.
"You can downhill ski and socialise on the chair with three of your friends," he said.
"But on the trails, there's more opportunity to stop and talk and chat with strangers.
"It is just more social."
Mr Lee said the Snow Park - being operated this year by the Lees' son Sam and Sam's business partner Sean Synnott - would be putting him to work this winter.
"I'm going to be a story-teller and show people around the mountain."
Mr Lee is the founder of Cardrona Alpine Ski Resort and the ski areas on the Waiorau skifield.
He is also supporting Mt Cardrona Station developers Ross Hawkins and Tony Fountain, who recently won a zone plan change to enable their village project to go ahead.
"I believe tourism has a sustainable future in the valley," he said.
"We are building on a foundation established by gold-miners, rabbiters and farmers.
"We had 3000 people once [in gold rush days]. Maybe we can have 3000 again one day," Mr Lee said.
When it comes to getting things done on Waiorau Station, Mr Lee's quote has been "better to seek forgiveness than ask permission".
He has been a thorn in the side of regulatory agents, mostly for the earthworks involved in cutting roads and trails and building reservoirs.
Most of the planning issues that have dogged him recently have settled.
